Erling Haaland: It has not been even a full season since Erling Haaland joined Manchester City. However, he has transformed their attacks and is helping them win more and more trophies. As they have reached the Champions League final, they have greater odds of winning the trophy for the first time. Ahead of the all-important match, talking to Man United legend Rio Ferdinand, Haaland talked about how Man City and their lack of finishing frustrated him last season. Follow UEFA Champions League LIVE Updates on InsideSport.IN.
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Erling Haaland joined the English giants side at the start of this season. He came to Man City on a £51 million deal from Borussia Dortmund. Haaland is a prolific striker and many doubted whether he would be able to fit in the Premier League. However, he has proved himself and done more as he became one of the most important players for Man City this season. The striker has helped the club acquire the Premier League title and the FA Cup. Now they are in the Champions League final.
Ahead of the match, he spoke to Rio Ferdinand on the show Between The Lines on BT Sports. Haaland talked about how watching Manchester City last season frustrated him. He said, “It’s a good thing to be good at tapping balls in. Last season, I watched so many times when crosses would go through the whole box and no one was there. I was imagining myself being there and thinking I’d slide that in. I was thinking of that when I came here.”
He added, “I’m not the one that’s going to create chances but I have my role in the team. And that’s this [tap-ins]. My job is to help the team put the ball in the back of the net.” Haaland is not a playmaker, but his ability to score even the toughest goals has benefitted Man City. He has scored a record 36 goals in the Premier League. He has also scored 12 goals in 10 Champions League outings. In total, he has scored 52 goals in his first season with the Cityzens.
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In his first season at the club, the player has broken several records. Most notably, he has scored the most Premier League goals in a single season. He has also set the record for an English club player who has scored the most Champions League goals in a single season. Additionally, he is only behind Dixie Dean for the record of most goals scored in all competitions in a single season by a Premier League player.
Talking about how he improves every day, he elaborated that he does not watch back his own games. He said, “I don’t watch my games back at all, actually. I try to think of the next game, not too much about how I did and what I did wrong. And I try to attack the next game. I did that a bit when I was younger but I was overthinking a lot so I stopped. I don’t watch anyone else’s [game tapes] as well.”
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